We Make The Music So Let's Make The Rules

I love music and I am proud to be someone who makes it. We start with silence and blank pages, and from that nothing we create music. We write songs that make people laugh, cry, sing and dance. We build scores that make the movies magical and loops that make games exciting. If you took away all the music from everything on your iPad you would have a really crappy computer with a small screen that is only good for emails and documents. Music brings incredible value to everything it touches. 

Almost 40% of every search on YouTube is a search for music yet YouTube pays way less for streaming music than either Spotify or Pandora.

The US is one of only a handful of countries that does NOT have an Artist broadcast royalty. Meaning that when Aretha Franklin sings "Respect" on the radio she isn't getting any. That's right no money for her or her label.

Our performing rights organizations around the world collect millions of dollars from retail locations for the broadcasting of music but really don't track what music is being played and who deserves to be paid. So they just make up who they give the money to often just paying the artists currently being played on the radio. When was the last time you were in a mall that was playing the radio?

With the exception of Sound Exchange there is no streaming or broadcast royalty for the musicians, engineers or producers of the music being played. They has a very small musician royalty and nothing for the other members of the team.

I think it's time that the people who create music and who love it took over. Think of it as a revolution not of hate of the ruling parties but one born out of LOVE for music and those who spend their lives making it.

If we can create music from silence then surely we can come up with a better structure to get paid than what we have now. Let's start a revolution.